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HomeExchange Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of The Holiday

Ten years ago, on December 8, 2006, The Holiday was released to appreciative moviegoers. A romantic comedy based on a home swap, it starred Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. Oh, and one other young up-and-comer: HomeExchange!

“I thought it was a joke when in early 2006 I got a phone call from SONY/Columbia asking if they could use our HomeExchange website in a movie they were producing.”

This is how Ed Kushins, founder and CEO of HomeExchange, is fond of starting his HOLIDAY story that goes on to include several of Hollywood’s biggest stars: Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Kate Winslet.

Giveaway: The 10 Days of The Holiday

Join us on Facebook to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Holiday, the movie inspired by and featuring HomeExchange!

For 10 days from December 5-14, look on Facebook for trivia and quotes about the movie, featured cottage exchanges… and chances to win surprise giveaways, including DVDs of The Holiday and free HomeExchange memberships.

Giveaways are based on your participation, so join in the fun!

“I was a little skeptical,” reveals Ed. “I didn’t want some serial killer using HomeExchange to find his victims. They told me ‘Oh no, it’s going to be a romantic comedy written by Nancy Meyers, who had the idea of a ‘meet cute’ of the characters on a home exchange website.’ Our website!”

The end result is a movie that revolves around two successful, career-focused women — Amanda Wood (Diaz), who owns an advertising firm in sunny Southern California, and Iris Simpkins (Winslet), a reporter for London’s Daily Telegraph, in snowy Surrey, England. Both have recently caught their boyfriends cheating on them and decide to take a break from everything (and everyone) by engaging in a home exchange — using HomeExchange.com. Of course, they find love in their homes away from home.

“We came to an agreement about how it would play out,” continues Ed. “They wouldn’t pay us and we wouldn’t pay them for any product placement, which worked out great for everybody. We worked with the producer on a number of technical points during the filming and we did cross-promotion when the movie was released.”

That release was on December 8, 2006. And that movie, The Holiday, will turn 10 years old in a few days, having grossed almost $300 million. It is still playing to appreciative audiences on DVD and TV.

“We credit The Holiday with continuing to help popularize home exchange worldwide,” concludes Ed. “For years I sent flowers to Nancy Meyers on December 8th, with a note thanking her and telling her we would be happy to participate again in the sequel. Haven’t heard back yet, but there’s always hope.”

Could it be? In an October 2015 interview with Nancy Meyers, she muses about where the couples might be in a sequel: “Jude and Cameron… I think by now they have kids, she’s probably living in London. Kate is in L.A. I think that’s maybe where I would take it.”

While the studio hadn’t, at the time, approached Meyers about The Holiday 2, she revealed that Jude Law had expressed his interest in revisiting his character. Time will tell.

Interestingly, both homes were purpose-built for the movie. The interiors of Amanda’s house were constructed on a soundstage and cost about $1 million; Iris’ Rose Cottage was put up in a field in Surrey over the course of two weeks.

Perhaps in a sequel, with HomeExchange 10 years older and expanded to include over 65,000 listings in 150 countries, two homes could be selected from the real mix. Do you think your home could be it?